Somehow I doubt that a few passengers leaving phones switched on (but otherwise passive) is likely to have a significant risk to aircraft electronics, unless they start sending or receiving voice or data at critical points in the flight. I know that interference is possible because if my radio is on, and the phone is near it, the radio squawks before the phone beeps or rings. So for me the 'rule' makes some sort of sense. I still think that given the scale of the problem (most passengers have mobiles) aircraft electronics should be shielded and the 'rule' enforced for passenger comfort. That way we don't have to listen to endless, "I'm on a plane" conversations.

What we have, in the Jetstar case, is a case of a driver distracted by a mobile phone while driving. On the ground that sort of thing can attract fines if the driver is caught 'in the act' by the police. For various reasons, it is considered a bad idea to have a blame culture in the cockpit, which is why pilots are encouraged to report near misses so others may learn.

In this case, the solution seems obvious. The pre-flight checklist should have on item, "are mobile phones switched off and locked away?"

Wait, hang on... a text message is distracting (apart from the fact that mobile phones shouldn't be operative), but all sorts of beeps attracting the attention of the pilots about the landing system aren't?!!! They apparently learnt to fly (and LAND) the friggin' plane with and without... so, Kudos :)

Wait a moment... am I missing something?? Isn't it that all mobile phones should be off from the time the plane is pushed back (or starts taxiing) until at destination it is docked at the gate (or parked on the tarmac)? Isn't that a "rule" for everyone on the plane, pilots included?

It is indeed a 'rule', but (humans being humans) mistakes will occasionally occur. I know I've left my phone on for the entire flight at least once, but at the time I would have sworn I'd turned it off. I'm pretty sure every flight with more than a few dozen passengers must have at least one active phone on board.

PS I know some pilots that like to have the "Whoop, whoop, pull up" cockpit alarm as a ring tone - that'll get your attention as you're coming in to land :)

The distraction in this article was the erroneous spelling of QANTAS, which reflects more than a typo- since an experienced travel writer would know the proud history of the "Queensland and Northern Territories Air Services". maybe the pilot's were distracted by poorly edited articles emailed to them from The Economist???

Obviously, Barry Mackenzie did. These posts are just fun, like an unimportant tennis game. They are not the grand prix of the world. They have no effect on anything and there is no need to toss humour out of the window and to be gratuitously insulting.
Unfortunately, a lot of people feel safe, hiding behind anonymity and addressing others in a way that they would not dare to address them in person.
You might better ask, "Who rattled Barry Mackenzie's cage?" He's the one at the top of this string.

Wasn't there a time when mobile phones were forbidden anywhere, at any time, aboard a plane in flight? were people not flown from A to B then? where is the need for this slave shackle to be with us at all times? the insistence of passengers that they should go on networking while flying is nothing short of psychotic. The world can go on nicely without their precious input for a few hours! or forever, as that incident nearly demonstrated.

Maybe Obama should propose an assault rifle in the hand of every school child, a doubling of the defence budget and the reintroduction of slavery in the South, the Republicans can then vote against them and start calling for gun control and and humane working conditions?

Then they can create some sensible legislation which Obama can 'concede' to?

I think it would work, reverse psychology works very well on children.

Dangerous. I think it is more likely to result in them backing rocket launchers in every classroom, quadroupling the defence budget and slavery across the whole US to prevent them being outflanked on the right.

Let's stick with the program people: this was an Australian plane landing - or trying to - in Singapore: the last time I checked, the makeup of the Aussie Parliament - H:(Labor(71)Liberal(44)LNP(20)Nationals(6)CLP(1)Independent(5)Greens(1)KAP (1)Nationals WA(1), S: Labor(31)Liberal(24)LNP(6)Nationals (3)CLP(1)Greens(9)DLP(1) - didn't have even one Republican in it...apparently Australia is one area of the Deep South they don't poll well in.